The Nutcracker Suite

This is a set of short numbers, each a jazz makeover of a piece from Tchaikovsky's ballet. Orchestras usually play a selection rather than all of them.

Overture: a quick, bright curtain raiser that sets up the swing feel.

Toot Toot Tootie Toot: the Dance of the Reed Flutes, with the flute melody turned into a playful, bouncing jazz line.

Peanut Brittle Brigade: the March, with a jazz swagger in place of the toy-soldier parade.

Sugar Rum Cherry: the Sugar Plum Fairy music, slow and smoky, with the celesta tune of the original reshaped into something cool and relaxed.

The Volga Vouty: the Russian dance, with Ellington's trademark growling brass.

Chinoiserie and Arabian Coffee: the Chinese and Arabian dances, taken in a swaying, exotic direction.

Dance of the Floreadores: the Waltz of the Flowers turned into a sweeping jazz waltz.

If you know the ballet, listen for the tunes you recognize hiding inside new rhythms.

In 1960 Duke Ellington and his longtime writing partner Billy Strayhorn recorded their own arrangement of Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker music with the Ellington orchestra for Columbia Records. They kept the main tunes but changed the harmonies and rhythms and gave the numbers playful new titles. The recording became one of the best known jazz treatments of a classical score. Symphony orchestras later adapted it for holiday concerts, often with a few players taking jazz solos.